Moss J. E., Jack C. G. and Wallace M. T. (2004) Employment location and associated commuting patterns for individuals in disadvantaged rural areas in Northern Ireland, Reg. Studies 38, 121–136. This paper investigates the employment commuting patterns of individuals living in disadvantaged rural areas of Northern Ireland. A survey of rural households is conducted and the data used to map the commuting patterns of individuals in employment. The analysis identifies key explanatory variables relating to observed commuting distances. These variables highlight particular constraints on employment locational choices available to rural households. The results identify a distinct interaction between rural and urban given the concentration of employment in regional and/or larger urban centres. For females, local employment tends to focus on the nearest regional town, with a heavy reliance upon public sector jobs, particularly in the areas of education and health. Male employment is concentrated in declining traditional industries and rural males travel lengthy distances to work. Mobility is undoubtedly a crucial aspect of accessing and retaining employment for working rural dwellers. From a rural development policy perspective, measures designed to enhance the mobility of rural dwellers are therefore a priority.

The economic sustainability of agricultural production is a crucial concern for most farmers, especially for pig producers who face dynamic changes in the market. Approaches for economic sustainability assessment found in the literature are mainly focused on the short-term economic viability of the farm and rarely take a long-term perspective. In this paper, we propose and test a new, innovative assessment and aggregation method, which brings about a broader view on more long-term aspects of economic sustainability. This wider view on economic sustainability, in addition to classical concepts such as technical efficiency, labor productivity, and farm profitability, incorporates the assessment of the levels of entrepreneurship, risk management, and the resilience of the invested resources. All indicators were scaled and aggregated using scaling and weighting procedures proposed by experts into subthemes and themes. The methodology was tested on a sample of 131 pig farms located in 6 EU countries: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, and Austria. We hypothesized that closed-cycle farms might be economically more sustainable than those farms that are specialized in pig breeding or finishing. The results showed that closed-cycle farms do indeed have advantages in terms of raising healthy animals and having slightly better overall resilience of resources, however specialized breeding and finishing farms appeared to be more sustainable in the areas of profitability, risk management, and reproductive efficiency. Our approach supports evidence-based economic sustainability assessments of pig farms and provides a tool that can be used for economic sustainability improvement strategies for farms.

Participatory agricultural extension programmes aimed at encouraging knowledge transfer and the adoption of new technology and innovation at the farm level are a novel approach to advisory service provision. In order to drive sustainable agricultural production systems that address farm-level economic and environmental objectives, the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) in November 2015, developed a new participatory extension programme for farmers in Northern Ireland, the Business Development Groups (BDGs). The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyse the drivers of farmers’ decisions in relation to joining and participating in this new approach to farm extension, learning and advisory service provision. Making use of data from both primary and secondary sources, this study employs a mixed-methods approach which involves an empirical analysis of quantitative and qualitative data to examine the factors influencing membership of the BDG programme. The results of our analyses show that larger, more intensive farmers who are keen to access information from other farmers to improve their business performance are most likely to participate in the BDG programme. The study contributes to the empirical literature by establishing the need to take into consideration the different characteristics of farmers in the design and delivery of participatory extension programmes.

This study used a stochastic simulation model to estimate the potential economic benefit of using sexed semen in heifers only and in heifers and lactating cows in a high-producing, pasture-based system under 3 fertility scenarios. Three breeding strategies were modeled: (1) only heifers inseminated with sexed semen and cows inseminated with conventional unsexed semen (SSH); (2) both heifers and cows inseminated with sexed semen (SSHC); and (3) a reference scenario in which all females were inseminated with conventional, unsexed semen (CONV). Each scenario was evaluated under 3 herd fertility states: high (HF), medium (MF), and low (LF), which, under the reference scenario, corresponded to herd replacement rates of 21, 25, and 31%, respectively. The model estimated the economic profit, including the net present value of the genetic gain from selection intensity. The economic return from adoption of sexed semen strategies declined, with reduced levels of baseline herd fertility turning negative in the LF state. The mean (±SD) sexed semen advantage (SSA) per cow for HF-SSH, MF-SSH, and LF-SSH scenarios were €30.61 ± 8.98, €27.45 ± 7.19, and €14.69 ± 11.06, respectively. However, the SSA per cow for HF-SSHC, MF-SSHC, and LF-SSHC scenarios were €49.14 ± 15.43, €18.46 ± 30.08, and -€19.30 ± 57.11. The range in economic profit for SSA for SSH was most sensitive to calf prices in HF-SSH and the pregnancy rate of sexed semen as a percentage of conventional unsorted semen in MF-SSH and LF-SSH. The range in economic profit for SSA for SSHC scenarios was most sensitive to the pregnancy rate of sexed semen as a percentage of conventional unsorted semen in HF-SSHC, MF-SSHC, and LF-SSHC. This study highlights the effect of baseline herd fertility state on the financial advantage of adopting sexed semen in a pasture-based dairy production system.